The Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 is about to begin but before that, the tension of Team India is not easing. Team India also won their second practice match before the tournament held in UAE. In this match against South Africa, Team India used 9 bowlers and won by a good margin of 28 runs. Despite the win, Team India’s batting top-order failed once again, which is not good news ahead of the start of the team’s campaign on October 3.
India’s top order failed again
Team India played their second practice match on Tuesday 1 October at the ICC Academy in Dubai. In the first warm-up match as well, the Indian team captained by Harmanpreet Kaur won on the strength of the bowlers. In that match, the first three batsmen of Team India Shefali Verma, Smriti Mandhana and Captain Kaur failed. This time too the story has not changed. Shefali and Harmanpreet were dismissed cheaply, while Smriti again could not convert her start into a big score.
Once again Team India batted first and Shefali was dismissed on the second ball without opening the account. After the dismissal of Harmanpreet Kaur, a partnership between Smriti and Jemimah Rodriguez seemed to be building but that too was broken in the 9th over. Jemima, who saved Team India by scoring a half-century in the last match, could not take her innings further this time. However, Richa Ghosh and Deepti Sharma had a quick and important partnership of 70 runs, on the basis of which the Indian team managed to post 144 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. Star fast bowler Ayabonga Khaka took the most 5 wickets for South Africa.
Won by 9 bowlers
While the opening pair of South Africa gave a start of 37 runs but there was no momentum in their batting either. India’s fast bowling attack took the early lead and did not allow much open batting. After this, the spin department worked to take wickets. Captain Kaur of the three fast bowlers used a total of 6 spinners including himself. All five spinners took wickets except Radha Yadav. Leg spinner Asha Shobhana took the highest 2 wickets and the South African team managed to score only 116 runs in 20 overs.
